DEVICE FOR RECEIVING SPLICE CASSETTES FOR OPTICAL WAVEGUIDES, ESPECIALLY IN CABLE SLEEVES

Abstract: Using a device (1) for receiving splice cassettes (8a) for optical waveguides, especially in cable sleeves, comprising a receiving housing (3) and splice cassettes (8a) arranged therein in the manner of drawers, and comprising openings for the entry and exit of optical waveguides, cable conductor bunches or the like, a solution is to be provided which allows the device of the generic kind to be used in a variety of applications irrespective of the type of cassettes used and while being easy to handle. This is achieved by means of the fact that the splice cassettes (8a) are arranged on cassette carrying plates (8) which are located in the receiving housing in such a manner that they can be pushed in and out.

Description: __?sςript * Jς.n Device for receiving splice cassettes for optical waveguides - especially in cable sleeves The invention relates to a device for receiving splice cassettes for optical waveguides, especially in cable sleeves. Various designs of splice cassettes are known, for exaπple from EP-A-0 288 808, EP-A-0 531 628, DE-B-0 216 073, EP-A-0 101970 or from the two Gerrnan laid-open specifications 34 05 309 and 34 13 401. It is also known to stack a plurality of such cassettes one above another in cable sleeves, as is disclosed, for example, in PCT/GB 92/02350 of the Applicant, in which the individual cassettes are stacked one above another, located in appropriate guides and fastened to one another, for example by a central screw arrangement. A device that forms the generic type is known from EP-A0 204 581. A disadvantage with the known solution is that individual cassettes cannot be individually adapted to the different installation requirements, the device cannot be used in a variety of systems with different cassettes, and necessary reserve cable cannot readily be accommodated in the known cable sleeve. The invention allows a single design of device to be used with ease in a variety of applications irrespective of the type of cassettes used. Thus, the present invention provides a device for housing splice cassettes for optical waveguides, comprising a receiving housing and splice cassettes arranged therein preferably in manner of drawers, and coπprising openings for the entry and exit of optical waveguides, cable conductors or the like, characterised in that the splice cassettes are arranged on cassette carrying plates which are located in the receiving housing in such a manner that they can be slid and/or rotated, preferably by simply pushing or pulling by hand, in and out. With the device according to the invention, it is possible by- using the cassette carrying plates which can be moved in the manner of drawers to employ the same cor__truction in different systems for electronic data transmission techniques, which makes it easier to manufacture the latter economically. In the construction of the invention, provision is made for the cassette carrying plates to be provided with fixing elements in order to form coiled reserves of cable in addition to the coiled reserves of cable on the cassettes. As a result of this possibility of providing a place for bunches or a place for cables on the cassette carrying plates in addition, it is possible to manipulate the cassettes at a relatively great distance from a sleeve equipped in that manner, since because of the additional coiled reserves the cassette itself can be removed from the device and placed, for exaπple, on a work-bench. In construction, provision is made according to the invention for a proportion of the cassette carrying plates which can be pushed into the housing to be spatially offset in the housing from another proportion of the push-in cassette carrying plates, so that handling is again made easier, since different positioning spaces are produced for the necessary reserve loops of the incoming and outgoing optical waveguides. In addition to the possibility of equipping the housing with frontal fastening elements for mounting purposes, the invention also provides that the cassette carrying plates are guided in the housing in the manner of drawers, it being possible to fix at least the corrpletely pushed-in position and/or the pulled-out position by a catch or the like, that is to say, each cassette carrying plate is advantageously held individually in its pushed- in position, so that if a housing is in an inclined position, for exaπple, when work is being carried out, the cassettes that are not being worked on are prevented from falling out even if further pulled-out positions are fixed, for exaπple the half pulled-out position or the virtually completely pulled-out position, the locking being effected in such a manner that complete removal of that individual cassette carrying plate from the housing is also made possible. Catches, slide elements or the like can be provided in this case. It is also advantageous for a potential equalising plate for the fixing of the shields of the incoming and outgoing cables to be assigned to the housing in the position of use in order to equalise the potential, as is also provided by the invention. The invention is suitable in principle for every kind of housing, both for a switch cupboard and for cable sleeves, one especially advantageous arrangement of the housing being within a so-called butt closure, formed for exaπple from a dome-ended sleeve, that is to say, the cassette carrying plates lie one beside another in the longitudinal direction in an upright position. For that purpose, the invention provides that, in order to arrange the housing in an upright position inside a pot sleeve with cables entering and leaving at one end, the housing is equipped with supporting feet which can be mounted on the base plate or side plate of the sleeve. The housing may be manufactured from a wide variety of materials, one possibility being to construct at least regions of it from profiled sheet metal. The invention is described in detail by way of exaπple below with reference to the drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a sirtplified three-dimensional view of a base plate of a pot sleeve with the device according to the invention, Fig. 2 is a side view approximately according to arrow II in Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a side view approximately according to arrow III in Fig. 1, and Fig. 4 is a side view of a cassette outside the housing with incoming and outgoing conductor bunches. A housing designated 3 is fastened by means of upright feet 4 inside a pot sleeve, generally designated 1, on which the actual pot, which is fastened to a base plate designated 2, is not shown in Fig. 1. In the exaπple shown, the upright feet 4 carry a rotationally symmetrical housing made of profiled sheet metal parts 5 to 7 which, as shown in Fig. 2, are so arranged in relation to one another that compartments are formed into which the cassette carrying plates designated 8, which carry the cassettes designated 8a, are inserted in the manner of drawers. In the exartple shown, the elements of the receiving housing 3 are equipped at their lower edge with flanges 9 which form drawer- runners for the cassette carrying plates 8, the shape being such that slot openings 10 for the passage of the optical waveguides, cable bunches or the like entering and leaving the splice cassettes are formed at the lower edge with the neighbouring wall. The incoming and outgoing optical waveguides and conductor bunches are generally designated 11 in the Figures, irrespective of whether they are bunches of many or few conductors or are single cable conductors or the like. As will be seen, for exaπple, from Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, each cassette carrying plate 8 has a plurality of clamping projections 12 behind which the incoming and outgoing fibre bunches or cables 11 can be laid in large reserve loops in such a manner that, for exaπple in Fig. 4, downwardly oriented loops 11a are formed which, however, depending upon the position of the cassette 8, could also be formed at the top. As will be seen especially from Fig. 1, there is assigned to the device 3 a so-called potential equalising plate 13 to which all the shields of the incoming and outgoing cables may be connected for the purpose of equalising the potential. If desired, an earthing cable (not shown) can also be contacted there. The described embodiment of the invention can, of course, still be modified in many respects without departing from the underlying concept. For exaπple, in particular, as has already been mentioned above, the invention is not limited to a pot sleeve design and a horizontal arrangement can be provided in the same manner, for exaπple in a through-sleeve, there may be many different spacings between adjacent cassette carrying plates, and so on.

Claims: Claims : 1. Device (1) for housing splice cassettes (8a) for optical waveguides, comprising a receiving housing (3) and splice cassettes (8a) arranged therein, and comprising openings for the entry and exit of optical waveguides, cable conductors or the like, characterised in that the splice cassettes (8a) are arranged on cassette carrying plates (8) which are located in the receiving housing in such a manner that they can be slid and/or rotated in and out. 2. Device according to claim 1, characterised in that the cassette carrying plates are provided with fixing elements (12) in order to form coiled reserves of waveguides or conductors (11) in addition to the coiled reserves of waveguides or conductors on the cassettes. 3. Device according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that one or more of the cassette carrying plates (8) which can be pushed into the housing (3) is spatially offset in the housing (3) from one or more other of the push-in cassette carrying plates (8) . 4. Device according to claim 1, characterised in that it is possible to fix, fcy a catch or the like, the cassette carrying plates (8) at least in a coπpletely pushed-in position and/or in a pulled-out position. 5. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the housing (3) is equipped with mounting projections (4) for fastening the housing inside a sleeve body (1) . 6. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that there is assigned to the housing (3) in the position of use a potential equalizer (13) for the fixing of cable shields of incoming and outgoing cables in order to equalise their potential. 7. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that, in order to arrange the housing (3) inside a sleeve (1) having cables (11) entering and leaving at one end, the housing is equipped with supports (4) which can be mounted on a base plate or a side plate (2) of the sleeve. 8. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the housing (3) is formed at least in regions _y profiled sheet metal parts (5-7) .

Inventors: ADAMASZEK DIETER, FREMGEN DIETER, ADAMASZEK, DIETER, FREMGEN, DIETER
Applicants: ADAMASZEK DIETER, FREMGEN DIETER, RAYCHEM LTD, ROSE WALTER GMBH & CO KG, ADAMASZEK, DIETER, FREMGEN, DIETER, RAYCHEM LIMITED, WALTER ROSE GMBH & CO KG
Application year: 1994
Main classification: G02B6
IPC codes: G02B6